These last few months, we have been witness to exciting filming reports coming to us from no fewer than three European countries: Spain, Croatia and Northern Ireland. Battles north and south, parades, reunions, historic meetings of main characters… All of them as thrilling as they were fleeting: Before we could savor it all, Game of Thrones shut down production for the holidays… But don’t fret: Now they’re back at it again!
Stopping production like this was a first for Game of Thrones. In the previous six years, all filming was done by the end of the year. However, the decision to benefit from real winter weather for season seven meant that filming began in late summer and now stretches into 2017, until February. Unprecedentedly, Game of Thrones will continue filming during the same year it airs, because of which it will premiere later than usual.
Now, how is it that we know they are back from their holiday break? Emilia Clarke was spotted yesterday in a flight to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and today Clarke shared the following moving picture on her Instagram, not only wearing her silver blonde wig but also revealing today was their first day of work at the show’s Belfast studios or nearby:
The truth is we are unlikely to get a whiff of whatever the cast and crew are cooking inside the Titanic Studios, so we shouldn’t expect reports as dramatic as those that came before —The Basque Country and Cáceres were particularly spoiler-filled. Nevertheless, we’ll keep an eye out for whatever may come from Belfast or wherever!
Hold The Door!
Honestly, I’m glad they’re done shooting outdoors. It’s too tempting to look at all the spoilery images! Keeps some surprises for us.
Finally! At least SOMEthing is better….
They may still film on location around Northern Ireland. And maybe in Iceland, though probably without actors, or else we may have heard something.
HOLD THE DOOR, Hope we get some more juicy info 😀
I’m hoping for plenty of indoor footage to be shot, because that’s where most of the delicious scheming tends to go on!
I was thinking about the fact that the two cleverest people in Westeros – among our core cast of characters, at any rate – are probably Tyrion and Littlefinger. And yet we’ve seen very little of them interacting, except in that wonderful sequence in Season 2 where Tyrion figures out which of three on the Small Council is Cersei’s mole. I do hope that we get a chance to see them match wits one more time before the end!
Luka Nieto,
Of course, more people are bound to see material being recorded indoors than material being recorded in Iceland.
*rimshot*
Thanks, I’m here all week. Remember to tip the staff.
Off topic, but wassup with the poster of a gagged Mel in Carice van Houten’s tweet on the right side of this page and why isn’t season 7 premiering tonight?????
Catspaw Assassin,
I think Brimstone is a new movie starring Carice Van Houten, Kit Harington, and Carice’s husband, Guy Pierce. Don’t know much else about it though.
Happy New Year guys !
Someone wrote on social media that they are filming at Wolf Hill Quarry, this guy said he lives close to the set and that the lights from the set light up half the mountain. He also said they appear to be filming a nighttime scene, as the cameras only seem to be rolling after dark. Appearantly both Emilia and Kit are filming there tonight !
Mr. Derp,
Oh, and season 7 was going to premiere tonight in secret until you spilled the beans, so that’s off now until this summer. Nice going! 🙂
Mr. Derp,
Many thanks for the info, Derp. My kingdom for a delete button!
Irina Stark,
VERY intriguing!…if true
I like the braid! Is she going visenya?
Arya Serious,
Yes, she’s going full Visenya combat dragon riding mode, a braid is easier for fights !
I am sooo excited to see what will happen tonight at Wolf Hill !
Emilia was getting her wig on 3 hours ago so they’re definitely shooting at night !
Irina Stark,
Has Kit been seen in Belfast?
Luka Nieto,
Wasn’t there a report of 6 main characters being involved in the Iceland filming? Was that false?
Mr. Derp,
Carice is married to Guy Pearce??? How did I not know that?!!?!?!
Mr. Derp,
I didn’t think they were married? They are together and have a new baby
Roberta Baratheon,
LOL…To be honest, I’m not sure how I DO know that. Carice Van Houten is hot. That is all. I know nothing else.
Cersei’s Brain,
Meh, I can’t say I have all of the details here nor do I care to. They’re either married or together. Either way, it’s a distinction that isn’t really important to me. Apparently I truly know nothing 🙂
ghost of winterfell,
Yes, Kit was actually seen on the Wolf Hill Quarry set by the same guy who gave the rest of the information. Appearantly he lives 5 minutes down the road, he said both Kit and Emilia are shooting there tonight !
If he is telling the truth and the cameras are only rolling after dark, I am really curious how it will look like onscreen, the Battle of Blackwater was pretty dark, I hope the set is lit better this time around. It would make sense why the guy said half the mountain at Wolf Hill is filled with lights.
Not shooting on location doesn’t make sense. Wasn’t the whole point of shooting during the winter to benefit from actual cold weather? These same interior scenes could’ve been shot during July and August and would look exactly the same!
Some types of effects really require being in a studio. And there often are indoor scenes interspersed with outdoor scenes. Some directors like to do these adjacent to each each other to maintain the same “feel” among the performers. (Others have no problems doing adjacent scenes months apart.)
Catspaw Assassin,
This is from the movie Brimstone, I have been anxiously awaiting!! With 2 GoT stars (2 of my favorites) along with Dakota Fanning and Guy Pierce. Google it, sounds good. Premiers in March I believe.
Irina Stark,
Can’t be. Kit has been photographed out and about with a friend (of The Mountain’s height) in London today.
Irina Stark,
Interesting. So this guy says that Kit and Emilia are shooting there tonight, which sounds like it hadn’t happened yet at the time of the post. This would imply this guy has advanced knowledge of what is happening there rather than simply observing what is going on. Would be more interesting to see how true this actually is.
phantomcloud,
That was yesterday – 5th Jan
http://twitter.com/Kit_Updates/status/817490048031584256
Irina Stark,
Makes sense 😉
oierem,
They’re surely shooting on location too. But only on Northern Ireland, as Croatia and Spain are done, as far as we are aware. Iceland is a big “maybe…?”.
Which guy claims he saw Kit and Emilia today? Link?
Mr. Derp,
Yup – doesn’t matter at all. But congrats to them on their baby! Wonder if Clarice is super tired
Whether or not that guy is right about both Kit and Emilia being there I think his right about a night scene, it looks too dark in Emilia’s IG to be the daytime.
Loving the full on braid In Emilia’s IG, I hope it’s like the one she had in the last episode of season 1 as that was absolutely gorgeous.
Irina Stark,
why don’t you provide link to the comment? what’s the point of just saying some dude said something somewhere?
phantomcloud,
It’s in the comment section for WoW facebook site. Click comments and hes the one with the most likes.
I was beginning to suffer from WotW withdrawal, haha. Here’s a link to the Facebook comment everyone’s talking about. https://www.facebook.com/watcherswall/posts/1560722573945384?comment_id=1560784933939148&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R6%22%7D
If that dude is telling the truth, we should get set photos of Kit/Jon for he said he was photographed.
She has very beautiful eyes
From what I understood the pics he took are from awhile ago. And he didn’t say he was going to share it.
I follow quite some people from the crew on instagram, and it seems like they’re all still on a break, apart from 2 girls from the hair team. Which leads me to think Emilia is doing a photoshoot or something. Also, according to some of the camera crew Iceland is indeed still on.
jdtargstark,
he says ‘Yeah Jon Snow has already been photographed on the set.’
He does say Kit was photographed by him on set a while ago. And there were no photos of Kit at WHQ from him.
jdtargstark,
There are at least two filming units.
Halfman,
I clicked on your link about Kit, went to the underlying Twitter page, and found a photo of Kit on set (of GoT, hopefully) holding what might be a wolf cub bearing a slight resemblance to Nymeria. I’ll try again to post the link.
phantomcloud,
Yes, i’m aware. Three units, actually. And made sure to follow a considerable amount of people working on all of those. That’s why I said I think emilia’s not actually filming yet. I obviously am not there though, to know what they’re up to. It’s just a thought.
keltia,
That’s from when he was filming that John Donnovan movie
jdtargstark,
I think she probably is filming though it may be smaller scenes they didn’t get time to do before or it could be her interacting with dragons if so no other cast members would be needed.
Usually if it’s a photoshoot it’s not in studio and somewhere really gorgeous like when Emilia, Lena and Natalie had that photoshoot on that cliff. Also in photoshoot’s her hair is more intricate while it looked more like a simpler braid which probably means riding dragons or in a battle. She could be doing her indoor Iceland filming instead of going there.
So we don’t know if the Wolf Hill filming from December 2016 is in conjunction with, or a replacement for, this filming block? Or something separate?
Alba Stark,
Well the only thing I’ve personally seen from the December shoot at Wolf Hill was Kit in a sort of wildling winter fur costume, chilling between takes. We also know Benjen and Tormund were closeby. If Emilia is joining now, then it’s 99% certain the shoots are connected chronologically, like I said a braid hairstyle signifies combat or sth along the lines of physical activity, definitely doesn’t look like her usual indoor posh style do’s. It’s a wee bit of a stretch but I’m guessing they did the
That’s my guess anyway !
Irina Stark,
That makes sense, they probably also need to finish Emilia’s scenes pretty soon because apparently at the end of the month she starts filming Star Wars Han Solo.
I don’t think the braids are a Visenya reference; they’re the Dothraki braids she’s adopted since Season 1. Big part to remind her that the Dothraki culture is where she first felt empowered/independent.
keltia,
You mean this one ?
https://twitter.com/Kit_Updates/status/815854566847774721
He’s not dressed warmly so I expect that’s an old photo taken in warmer weather which the twitter account has used just to say HNY. 🙂
Irina Stark,
I think you are right. If they are filming at WHQ, the other actors involved Rory, Iain, Kristofer etc must be there as well.
It looks like this entire sequence is being filmed in NI itself. So maybe they cancelled their earlier plans to shoot in Iceland, maybe the weather conditions seemed too tough for them to shoot there?
ghost of winterfell,
I’m not so sure, They seemed to already film all those scenes before christmas by fans taking pics of all those guys together.
What we didn’t have is Emilia at the same time, so she could be filming those scenes now or dragon ones.
I know they are filming at Iceland but the question is whether or not the actors are going there or if their just filming scenery scenes to input in the wolf quarry ones, I guess we’ll find out when the filming crew gets to Iceland.
Mel,
Leak spoilers:
Apparently, Sophie Turner ha been spotted in L.A so maybe there is a posibility that she will attend the Golden Globes, wich mean we will have another interview! I hope she says something different or she gives something away hahaha (And I’m dying to see her dress, she always looks so hot and perfect)
The audience will pick up the Dothraki visual cue. As no Visenya with braids has been shown in the series, it cannot be a reference to that.
Kit is still in London as of Saturday! Someone posted a pic of him on his bus in London! So he is not in Belfast or the Quarry, unfortunately!?
Rella,
Getting from London Belfast does not take too much time. Obviously, he was not filming in Belfast when the shot was taken: but he could have been there Friday or Sunday.
About the Leaks:
The Dragon Demands,
Wimsey,
I hope they include bells in her hair. From the photos I’ve glimpsed it doesn’t appear so.
Wimsey,
The FB guy mentioned that Kit was photographed on the set, if no photos emerge, it’s confirmation that it was BS. But I also doubt he made a one-day trip to Belfast to shoot something in the evening. He was not spotted at the airports as he usually is, not spotted in Belfast.
Perhaps they will save that for some victory or another. After all, aren’t bells supposed to be earned?
Well, not quite: even if the pictures were taken, there is no guarantee that they will be widely distributed. Basically, it can be proven that Kit was there with pictures, but we would need some confirmation that he was somewhere else to disprove that he was there.
Amazing what a 400 lb 14 year old can do, eh?
That FB guy also claimed Maisie’s back in Belfast filming, turns out she’s not, she’s going to the Golden Globes this weekend.
Wimsey,
The onus is on the one claiming a sighting to provide proof, not for others to disprove it
Wimsey,
Maybe they’re saving it for when she flies into a big battle atop of Drogon. She’s earned a few bells at this point.
Rella,
Can you link to the photo?
Ok, found the photo. It was from today’s morning so very much doubt he was filming at night in Belfast.
Rella,
do you have a link for this picture?
https://www.reddit.com/r/freefolk/comments/5mo2dk/the_facebook_guy_has_corrected_himself_and/
So turns out, the facebook guy PERSONALLY has not seen kit or anyone else from the cast around town recently or ever, lol. The only thing he saw was the lights up at wolfhill quarry last night. The pics he’s mentioned are from other sites from weeks ago. Can we assume now that Kit wasn’t there yesterday filming after all?
Gosh, I hope she’s going. Lena too–she’s actually nominated. (I also hope GG properly honour Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.) I don’t expect GoT to win; for some reason the GG have consistently passed it over. But just in case, we need plenty of GoT star power alongside David Benioff. He was at the AFI awards yesterday when GoT was honoured as one of the best TV shows, so I assume he’ll attend the Globes. I plan to watch the show tucked up in wooly blankets, with bowls of crisps and biscuits to hand. And some nut brown ale. Cheers, all.
jdtargstark,
don’t have to assume. it’s confirmation he didn’t make a quick trip for a one-night shot.
jdtargstark,
That’s a pretty safe assumption. Unless he’s able to teleport, he definitely couldn’t have done a shoot lasting into the evening based on when that bus photo was taken.
Despite what leakers claimed, it seems like Winterfell arc won’t just be indoor stuff. Aidan was filming in a field outside Belfast for 4 straight days at one point.
http://imgur.com/PZaIOWw
phantomcloud,
I don’t know which leaks you mean, but Lads, the only corroborated one, never said anything like that.
True. However, it still is logically true that the failure for photos to appear does not demonstrate that Harrington (or any other actor) was not on set. The likelihood that he was is simply how probable it was that no photos would appear if he was on set: much less than 1.0, but much more than 0.0, too.
I can see why you would say that because braids are a huge part of Dothraki culture. I figured Visenya because every time she goes somewhere she adopts a part of the culture into her look and she’s going home. I was thinking along the lines that she was doing Visenyas braid over the right shoulder as a way of going back and embracing her roots and paying homage to her ancestor. Jorah gave her books as a wedding gift about Westeros and Viserys told her stories as a child so he could very well have heard of the conquest and heard about her family members. Could go either way really. If she shows up with bells in her hair then I guess we know for sure. 🙂
phantomcloud,
Lads never said that. And if you’re referring to other leakers, don’t even bother. The only leaker whose claims has been backed up with actual shooting spoilers and reports from trustable sources (a.k.a. this site and Los Siete Reinos) is Lads. Every other “leaker” out there so far has been trolls and attention seekers until proven right.
Davos’ Luck,
Well, Lads himself didn’t have any big outside spoilers for the Winterfell arc, all of them inside.
phantomcloud,
I remember there was a report posted here a while ago in which it was said that Mormont soldiers would be needed for scenes in the North. Maybe it has something to do with this.
phantomcloud,
No he didn’t, most of what he said was about Jon or Dany. This site was the one who said the Iron Bank would be involved with Cersei’s storyline, and Euron’s parade so if he didn’t say anything about that I don’t think it’s a stretch to say there are other scenes we don’t know about that have happened.
We don’t know what he had really, how he got it and how much more he had. He told only the stuff he was asked about in PM and posted some comments in specific reddit threads. He migh’ve had a lot more to tell. The bad thing is, not a lot of people believed him at the time and haven’t bothered to try and get out of him as much info as possible.
He didn’t say a lot of his things, but that doesn’t mean that his leaks are off. His leaks are legit, IMHO, but in no way complete. I’m sure there are a lot of things we don’t know yet. But what he did tell, it’s legit, or at least a good part. One quick example: he predicted the Wight Hunt expedition weeks before this site and others reported it for the first time, something that NOBODY could have ever preditcted without inside knowledge.
Gravemaster,
That’s a flimsy excuse. He was asked about a bunch of stuff. Winterfell, LF, Sansa, Cersei, Euron etc. He could have posted the big spoilers at any time when discussing those characters/locations. He failed to mentioned many things.
Lyanna_Targaryrn,
Yay no more spoilers lol
Dee Stark,
Dee be careful I saw two big uncovered spoilers in this comment thread.
Rhaenys Stark,
I didn’t read any comments after lyannna and lukas , because I knew there would be uncovered spoilers even though this is a spoiler free thread..
Thank you ☺️
Luka Nieto,
You probably wouldn’t know this… but Why didn’t they just shoot all the indoor stuffbefore all the outdoor stuff and they would have been done in December and therefore not a big delay would have been necessary?
No, it really cannot go either way, at least on the TV show. And the reason for this is pretty simple: the audience never has heard about any of this stuff. If this is to be at all important, and given the late stage in the over-arching story, it has to refer to something that the audience has been shown. The final act is the time to fire guns, not hang them!
Moreover, the nature of this story is important. Daenerys is one of the two biggest protagonists on the show. The sum of what we’ve seen drive the evolution of her character is going to be coming to its zenith very soon. Daeny’s relationship to the Dothraki strongly parallels Jon’s relationship to the Wildlings: and emphasizing those things is going to be very important for the audience to understand who Daeny has become when Daeny makes her part(s) of the big “crunch time” decisions. B&W have shown us how the Dothraki influenced Daeny’s character trajectory. They have not shown us of someone who might (or might not) have been in some book influenced her character trajectory. Thus, using the latter would be no different from Deus ex Machina.
I agree with you, Wimsey, from the practical point of view. No time left to throw in fairly frivolous things. But the show did briefly reference Visenya at least twice, though not in connection with Dany. The first time was Arya’s rapturous description of Visenya and Dark Sister when talking to Tywin. The second was two occasions when Shireen was teaching Davos how to read from a book of Westerosi ‘history’. Apparently, Shireen also liked this tale. Interestingly, we also see an illustration of Visenya brandishing that sword from the back of a dragon. I doubt the braid matters, but the sword made an impression, and swords with names are important in GoT (even if the Hound thinks naming swords is silly). I like to think that somehow Dark Sister will come to Arya so she’ll have Valyrian steel in the Battle for Dawn. But who knows?
Yes, the show has (apparently!) referenced Visenya. I admit, I had forgotten that it had done so. But, again, the big difference is: nothing has been developed about Daeny having Visenya as some sort of role model or heroine or anything like that.
Indeed, if anything, then the show did much more to develop Visenya as a role-model for Arya. However, even there, it did nowhere near enough to do that. Instead, what we got out of it was that Arya holds females who accomplished things in high esteem and remembers it. But what we also learned is that the accomplishments of accomplished women are considered trivial details to men like Tywin. Yes, he knew that: but he lumps it all in with what Aegon did.
Ultimately, what that did was give us one more indication that women are held in low regard by Westerosi men: they are good for sex, either recreational or procreational, and that is about it.
As for the sword, how many swords have we heard named on the show? I can think of only a couple: Ice, the swords made from Ice, Needle, and Lightbringer. It certainly is not something that comes up often. (We are told that great swords have names, but I don’t recall many names being given, or if they were, only given so briefly that some hardcore fans [myself clearly excluded] caught it.) At any rate, it’s a little late for famous named swords to become important! (Sorry Dayne fans!)
Wimsey,
The only named swords that will probably come up are valyrian steel swords because they are kinda useful against the WW
Wimsey,
Was Ice ever referred to by name on the show? I remember Tywin saying Widow’s Wail and Oathkeeper were forged from an absurdly large sword and Jaime told Brienne Oathkeeper was made from Ned Stark’s sword, but I don’t think anyone has ever called it “Ice”.
Also, Longclaw and Heartsbane have been named on the show.
You might be correct. But, of course, “Ned Stark’s sword” means a lot more to the audience than does “Ice,” so that would be a smart way to phrase it.
True! But, then, presumably Visenya’s sword was Valyrian steel, as the Targaryens came from Valyria. Still, as it never has come up on the show or gotten any development in the books, I have a hard time seeing it as being important in either medium. It certainly would be pretty lousy story telling! (Like, 4 Dorne’s lousy…..)
I would add that, even though for Arya Visenya is in the company of “females who accomplished things” and is therefore held in “high esteem,” she still isn’t at the top of Arya’s list. After all, she named her direwolf after Nymeria. And if the leaks are true, and